[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 40, Number 15 (Monday, April 12, 2004)]
[Pages 533-543]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on Job Training and the National Economy in Charlotte, North 
Carolina

April 5, 2004

    Thanks a lot for the warm welcome. I tried to visit last February. 
[Laughter] That's when your fine mayor and Police Chief Stephens told me 
that they didn't think the Presidential motorcade would be an ideal way 
to

[[Page 534]]

plow the streets. [Laughter] The weather is beautiful today. Thanks for 
the warm welcome. It is great to be here in the great State of North 
Carolina in such a vibrant part of your State, the great city of 
Charlotte.
    I'm here to talk about an important subject, which is our economy 
and how we make sure people are properly trained for the jobs of the 
21st century. It's an important stop on my way to throwing out that 
first pitch for the St. Louis Cardinals. I've been loosening up over the 
weekend. [Laughter] My wing isn't what it used to be. But opening day of 
baseball season is a pretty special day for a guy like me who loves the 
game. I'm looking forward to getting there with the good folks of St. 
Louis.
    But I'm particularly interested in coming here to Central Piedmont 
Community College, for this reason: This place of higher learning is 
doing a fabulous job of helping men and women seek new opportunities. 
This is such a hopeful campus. It's a place where the future is brighter 
for people who come here. And I want to thank you for the hospitality. I 
want to thank the faculty for their dedication. I want to thank the 
staff for putting up with me and the entourage.
    I met with some business leaders earlier who were touting the 
virtues of Piedmont Community College's ability to use their ideas and 
incorporate their ideas into curriculum so that the training programs 
train people for jobs which actually exist. And that's an important part 
of making sure our economy, which is in the strongest in the world 
today, remains the strongest in the world.
    I want to thank Tony. He is an innovative leader. He was right, 
Mother is still the boss of the family--[laughter]--except Laura is the 
boss of my family. [Laughter] By the way, I don't know if you know this, 
but Tony married a school librarian. Beth is a school librarian. We both 
married above ourselves. [Laughter]
    I appreciate so very much Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, who's 
traveling with me today. She's a very capable member of my Cabinet. Her 
job is to make sure that the training programs in place enable people at 
the local level to succeed. That's what I'm going to talk about a little 
bit today, about how to make sure that the monies we're spending 
actually fulfill their mission.
    I appreciate so very much two Members from the United States 
Congress who have joined us. First, Congressman Richard Burr from North 
Carolina is with us--Richard. Richard is a good friend of mine. I 
appreciate him coming today. I also appreciate the Congressman from this 
district. Congressman Robin Hayes is with us, as well. We came down on 
Air Force One; we spent more time talking about fishing and hunting than 
we did anything else. [Laughter] Those were the good old days.
    I appreciate my friend Mayor Pat McCrory, who's with us, the mayor 
of this great city. He's done such a fine job for Charlotte. Thank you 
for coming, Mayor.
    I thank all the students who are here. I hope after this speech you 
leave with a hopeful--a sense of hope about the future of this country. 
I mean, you have--you're entering into an economy that is just so 
fantastic and exciting. And I just wish you all the best as you realize 
your dreams.
    I met Laura Spencer today when I landed at the airport there. Where 
are you, Laura? There she is. Laura, thanks for coming. Laura--you 
probably have never heard of her before, but she is soldier in the army 
of compassion. She's a person who volunteers here at Central Piedmont in 
the Adult Basic Literacy Education program. She's a person who takes 
time out of her life to try to help somebody else. The reason I herald 
people like Laura is because the true strength of the country lies in 
the hearts and souls of our citizens. We're strong because we're 
militarily strong, and I'll keep it that way. We're strong because we're 
wealthy. But we're really strong because we've got people from all walks 
of life who are willing to love a neighbor just like they'd like to be 
loved themselves. If you want to serve your community and your Nation, 
find somebody to help. Mentor a child. Care for somebody who's lonely. 
Feed the hungry. Find shelter for the homeless, and you'll be doing a 
vital service to the future of our country. Laura, I'm proud of you. 
Thank you for the example, and thank you for what you do.

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    America's economy is getting stronger. I am optimistic about our 
future, not only because of what I see today but because of what I know 
we have overcome. Let me just review right quick the economic history of 
the last couple of years. First, when I came to office, the country was 
headed into a recession. That means we were going backwards. That means 
it's hard to find work if you're somebody who is looking for work. It 
means it's hard to make payroll if you're a small-business owner. It is 
a negative period. Fortunately, we cut taxes, which made this recession 
the shallowest--one of the shallowest in American economic history.
    As we were beginning to recover from the recession, the enemy hit 
us. September the 11th, 2001, marked a new day in American history. It 
was a sad day. It was a different--we entered a different period on that 
day. It's a day in which we realized oceans could no longer protect us 
from enemies which hate what we stand for. These coldblooded killers 
came and attacked us because they hate freedom. They can't stand the 
things that we love here in America. And it hurt us. It hurt us 
economically. Our economy lost nearly one million jobs in the 3 months 
after we were attacked.
    It changed how we must view foreign policy. Before the attack, we 
could see a threat that might be emerging overseas, and we could pick 
and choose whether or not we wanted to deal with it or not. Now when we 
see threats, we recognize that those emerging threats must be dealt with 
in order to protect ourselves. It changed the attitude of those of us 
involved with the most solemn duty of protecting the American people. On 
that day, I vowed that I would bring to justice those who inflicted harm 
on America.
    We're on the offensive. We will stay on the offensive until this 
scourge to civilization is removed. It is important to stay on the 
offensive, using all our resources to bring these people to justice, 
because Al Qaida is wounded but not broken. They're still dangerous. We 
take them seriously, because I'm convinced they'd still like to inflict 
harm on America or Americans.
    It's also that day--right after that day, I announced a doctrine 
that said, ``If you harbor a terrorist or feed a terrorist, you're just 
as guilty as the terrorist.'' It's very important for the American 
President to speak clearly and mean what he says. I meant what I said. 
The Taliban found out that I mean what I say. Afghanistan is now free of 
one of the most barbaric regimes in the history of mankind, and Al Qaida 
no longer has a safe haven in Afghanistan.
    America refused to be intimidated by killers. And so we began to 
recover, and then we had another challenge we had to overcome. We 
discovered that some of our corporate citizens behaved irresponsibly. 
They didn't tell the truth to their shareholders or their employees. 
That shook our confidence. I worked with Congress, Members of both 
parties, to pass tough new law. And the message is now clear: We will 
not tolerate dishonesty in the boardrooms of America. It was a challenge 
we overcame.
    As I mentioned, September the 11th, 2001, taught a lesson that said, 
when we see a threat, that the country must take threats seriously 
before they fully materialize. That was one of the changes that was 
necessary in order to protect this country. I looked at the information 
on Iraq and--the intelligence--and saw a threat. The United States 
Congress looked at the same intelligence, and it saw a threat. My 
predecessor and the previous Congress looked at the same intelligence 
and made regime change in Iraq the policy of our Government. In other 
words, it saw a threat as well. The United Nations Security Council 
looked at the intelligence, and it saw a threat.
    And so I had a choice to make after Saddam Hussein refused once 
again to disarm. That was, I went to the United Nations Security 
Council; I said, ``We all see a threat. Let's do something about it, 
finally.'' And they agreed. They passed a resolution unanimously that 
said, ``Disarm. Get rid of your weapons programs, or face serious 
consequences.'' That was the message that the members of the United 
Nations Security Council said, loud and clear.
    Saddam Hussein once again defied the demands of the world. And so I 
had a choice: Do I take the word of a madman, do I trust a person who 
had used weapons of mass destruction on his own people, plus people in

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the neighborhood, or do I take the steps necessary to defend the 
country? Given that choice, I will defend America every time. [Applause] 
Thank you.
    We're still being challenged in Iraq, and the reason why is, a free 
Iraq will be a major defeat in the cause of terror. Terrorists can't 
stand freedom. They hate free societies. And yet, we know that free 
societies will be peaceful societies. We also believe that freedom is 
the Almighty's gift to every person in this world. It's one of the 
values that we hold dear. These killers don't have values. They want to 
shake our will, so we've got tough action in Iraq.
    But we will stay the course. We will do what is right. We will make 
sure that a free Iraq emerges, not only for our own security but for the 
sake of free peoples everywhere. A free Iraq will change the Middle 
East. A free Iraq will make the world more peaceful. A free Iraq will 
make America more secure. We will not be shaken by thugs and terrorists.
    The march to war was a difficult period for our economy. Marching to 
war is not positive. When you look on your TV screen and it says, 
``America is marching to war,'' and if you're somebody who is thinking 
about expanding your business, you may decide not to in the face of such 
a negative thought. And so the final hurdle we had to overcome in the 
last 3 years was the march to war. We're now marching to peace. But 
think what our economy has been through: a recession; an attack; 
corporate scandals; and a march to war. And yet we've overcome them all.
    A lot of it has to do with the fact that this country is great and 
the people in this country are strong. The entrepreneurial spirit is 
vibrant. We've got the best workers in the world. Plus, I happen to 
think tax relief helped a lot. We based our decisions on this idea, that 
if a person has more money in their pocket--more of their own money in 
their pocket, by the way--they're likely to demand an additional good or 
a service. And when they demand an additional good or a service, 
somebody is likely to produce the good or a service. And when somebody 
produces the good or a service, somebody is more likely to keep their 
job and/or find a new job.
    Also, a major part of the tax relief was some good policy that said, 
if you have a child, we want to help you raise your children. We've 
increased the child credit. We said that we want to encourage marriage 
in America, not discourage marriage, so we lessened the effects of the 
marriage penalty in the Tax Code.
    We understood the important role of small business in hiring people. 
As a matter of fact, it's estimated that 70 percent of all new jobs are 
created by small businesses in America, so a key ingredient of the tax 
relief plan was to encourage small businesses. If you're a small 
business, you're likely to be a sole proprietorship or a Subchapter S 
corporation. Those are legal words for this: It says you pay tax at the 
individual income-tax rate. So when you reduce individual income taxes, 
you're really reducing taxes on small businesses as well. Plus, we 
created some incentives for investment. And it's paying off. It's paying 
off.
    The entrepreneurial spirit is strong. One way to make sure to keep 
it strong is to say to our farmers and ranchers and small businesses 
that when you--after you built your business, you can leave it to 
whomever you want without the Federal Government getting in the way. 
We've got the death tax on the way to extinction. We need to make sure 
it's extinct forever, for the sake of--[applause].
    And here's why I say it's working. We've had strong economic growth. 
This economy is growing. Inflation is low. Interest rates are low. 
Manufacturing activity is on the increase. Homeownership rates are the 
highest ever. Isn't that a wonderful thought? More people own their home 
than ever before. We have a minority homeownership gap in America, which 
we must close for the sake of the future. And now we've got more 
minorities, families, owning their own home than ever before. There's 
still a gap, but nevertheless, more people are owning their home. And 
we're working to close the gap. We want people owning something in this 
country. If you own your own home, own your own business, you've got a 
vital stake in the future of America.

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    And last week, we received confirmation that our economy is 
stronger. The Department of Labor reported the economy created 308,000 
new jobs in March, more than three quarters of a million new jobs since 
August. That's good news. The economy is strong, and it's getting 
stronger. We've overcome the challenges from the past 3 years. Listen, 
most of those challenges would have cratered most economies--not 
America's economy, because the ingredients for growth are there. We've 
got visionary business leaders. We've got great, productive workers, and 
we've had good policy.
    In North Carolina, you've seen progress of your own here. First of 
all, I fully understand that there are people who hurt here. Industries 
like the textiles and the furniture manufacturers are struggling, and 
that is an issue that we've got to deal with. But there are incredibly 
positive signs as well. The housing industry in this State is strong. 
More people own a home here in North Carolina than before. The health 
care industry is strong. Biotechnology are strong. The unemployment rate 
is down in this State. You've got to be optimistic about your future 
here, because North Carolina is a great place to do business, and you 
need to keep it that way.
    We have a strategy to make sure the economy stays strong. Let me 
share some of the ingredients of that strategy with you. First, in order 
for us to keep jobs at home, in order for us to make sure the job market 
expands, we've got to make sure the legal system is fair. Frivolous and 
junk lawsuits make it hard to expand the job base. The United States 
Congress must pass class-action lawsuit reform, asbestos reform, for the 
sake of creating new jobs. Tort reform is necessary.
    The rising cost of health care makes it difficult to keep jobs at 
home and to expand the job base. There is a battle in Washington, DC. 
There's a philosophical argument over how to deal with the cost of 
health care. Some say that the Federal Government ought to run the 
health care system. I strongly disagree. We need to implement policies 
that put consumers in charge of health care.
    There's some practical ways to deal with the rising cost of health 
care. One, we must allow small businesses to pool risk, just like big 
businesses get to do, through association health care plans. See, when 
you pool risk, it means you can buy health insurance for your employees 
at a lower cost than if you have to go into the market by yourself. 
Secondly, we passed what's called health savings accounts. These are 
methodologies for holding down the cost of health care and putting 
consumers back in charge of health care decisions. Third, we need 
medical liability reform at the Federal level. Junk lawsuits are running 
up the cost of medicine for people all across this State.
    Good trade policy is necessary to keep jobs at home. There's a 
tendency to say, ``Gosh, the jobs are going overseas; therefore, let's 
isolate ourselves from the world.'' I think that's a mistake. Many small 
businesses rely upon being able to export. Farmers all across this 
country need to export their product. We're good at things, see. We're 
good at growing things. We're good at building things. And therefore, 
rather than isolate ourselves, we ought to take a different policy. We 
ought to make sure the playing field is level for our exporters.
    Presidents before me, from both political parties, had made the 
decision to make our markets relatively open to products from around the 
world. It happens to be good for our consumers. If you're a consumer, 
when you've got more choice, more competition for your dollar, it means 
prices are better for you and quality is better. But what's happened in 
the past is that we haven't demanded the same openness in other markets. 
So rather than closing our market, what I think we ought to be doing is 
going to other countries and saying, ``Look, we're going to treat you 
this way; you need to treat us the same way. You need to have that 
playing field level for U.S. products.''
    And we're sending a message. There's ways to do so. We took China to 
the World Trade Organization and said, ``They're not treating our 
semiconductor manufacturers fairly. They're giving unfair tax breaks.'' 
In other words, the playing field is not level. So we're spending a lot 
of time leveling the playing field through enforcement and trade policy.
    Last year, our customs and border agents seized over $200 million 
worth of smuggled

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textiles that were headed to this country. It's another way to make sure 
the playing field is level, to stop people and pirates and thieves from 
bringing products in that destroy our markets here at home--bring them 
in illegally--that destroy our markets here at home. I refuse to allow 
us to become isolated. I think pessimistic people are willing to isolate 
the country. My attitude is, give us a chance to compete, and we can 
outcompete anybody in the world.
    In order to make sure the economy is strong, we need spending 
discipline in Washington. I've laid out a plan to cut the deficit in 
half over 5 years. It's going to require the United States Congress not 
to overspend, and I look forward to working with them.
    Finally, another thing we need to do is, we need an energy policy in 
this country. If you're a person trying to--if you're a manufacturer who 
relies upon energy, it's awfully hard to expand your job base if you're 
worried about whether or not the electricity system that you rely upon 
is modern. It's hard to expand your job base if you rely upon natural 
gas. It's hard to rely upon sound energy when we're dependent on foreign 
sources of energy. In order to make sure that the economy stays strong 
and people can find work here at home, the Congress needs to pass the 
energy plan we submitted, which will encourage more conservation, which 
will encourage our electricity system to become modernized, but--which 
will allow us to use clean coal technologies and to explore for natural 
gas so we're less dependent on foreign sources of energy.
    What I'm telling you is, is that in order for this job base to be 
secure, in order for people to be able to keep work here at home, 
America must be a good place to do business. It must be a reasonable 
place to do business. It must be a place where the entrepreneurial 
spirit remains strong.
    Here in Washington, you'll hear a different set of opinions about 
this. There are people who believe we need to increase spending and need 
to therefore increase taxes. I think raising taxes at this point would 
be a disaster for our economy. It's the absolute wrong thing to do as 
our economy is beginning to recover. I feel quite the contrary. As a 
matter of fact, all the tax relief we passed, some of which is set to 
expire next year, other parts set to expire later on in the decade--all 
that tax relief needs to be permanent.
    The other interesting thing about this history, besides the 
challenges we've overcome, is that we're in a period of historic 
economic change. This is a very interesting period of time. The 
economists call it a period of transition. I call it the beginnings of 
an innovation economy. It's an economy where technology is transforming 
just about every job. It's a very fascinating period of time.
    For example, the average car today has 27 onboard computers. And in 
some cases, our cars have more raw computing power than that which was 
used to send the Apollo astronauts to the moon. Now, that's a pretty 
interesting thought, isn't it? Which means, if you're an automobile 
repair guy--[laughter]--you better know something about computers--
[laughter]--or if you're an automobile manufacturer. In other words, 
this is the kind of sophisticated level that is necessary for our 
workers.
    What I'm telling you just doesn't apply to the automobile 
manufacturing world. We've got people here--workers in this State and 
other States who hold jobs that didn't even exist a few decades ago: 
biological technicians; software engineers; desktop publishers; 
bioinformatic specialists. These are the jobs of the 21st century. And 
if you'd have said to somebody 30 years ago or 20 years ago, ``Gosh, 
don't you look forward to being a bioinformatic specialist''--
[laughter]--they'd have probably wondered what you were talking about.
    Ninety percent of all scientific knowledge has been generated in the 
last 30 years. This is why we're in a period of such great innovation 
and possibility. That's how I view it, as a moment of fantastic 
possibility for America and our workforce.
    And North Carolina is making advantage of this--taking advantage of 
the possibilities. Think about this: Six years ago, the largest export 
of this State was tobacco--just 6 years ago--and now it's computer 
equipment. That's an amazing transformation of an economy, isn't it? 
About 10 percent of the Americans who are employed in biotechnology work 
reside right here in North Carolina. That's a workforce that's beginning 
to change

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quite dramatically. North Carolina has the world's greatest 
concentration of labs devoted to clinical testing of new medical 
technology and pharmaceuticals.
    For an economy that was based upon tobacco and, to a certain extent, 
textiles, you're now on the leading edge of technological change. New 
industries are part of what's driving this economy forward across the 
country and certainly what's driving the North Carolina economy forward. 
And I congratulate you on that. It must be exciting to live in a State 
that is the center of innovation.
    There's a reason why we're that way, by the way. The entrepreneurial 
spirit is really strong here. The role of Government is not to create 
wealth. The role of Government is to create an environment in which the 
entrepreneur is willing to take risk and be able to get a return on the 
risk taken. And we need to keep the entrepreneurial spirit alive and 
well across this country.
    Secondly, our universities are a great place for people to learn. I 
mean, when you--there's a lot of--the main reason why people from around 
the world want to come here to study is because we're on the leading 
edge of change. We've got good, efficient capital markets. That means 
that when somebody has got a good idea, they've got good access to 
capital. And that's very important. We've got a flexible workforce, 
flexible work rules. These are all the ingredients as to why we stay on 
the leading edge of change.
    But we still--we live in a competitive world, though. It's just--we 
should never take anything for granted. We shouldn't take our 
preeminence as the world's greatest economy for granted. We've 
constantly got to make sure the economic environment here is strong. 
We've got to make sure that we're innovative. I'm going to talk about an 
innovative way to make sure our workers get retrained here today. But 
I'm also going to talk about, in the next couple of weeks, economic 
growth and security through innovations on the information technology 
front, communications, and health care and energy. In other words, my 
job is to make sure the environment is such that we're constantly on the 
leading edge of change, so people can find good work.
    Today and tomorrow I'm going to talk about the fact that we've got 
to prepare all Americans to succeed in this new economy. Today I'm going 
to talk about community colleges and the workforce training programs, 
and in Arkansas, I'm going to be talking about how to make sure our high 
school and Pell grant programs work properly.
    Here's the challenge: You just heard me describe how your State has 
changed, and it's going to even change even faster as time goes on. And 
so, are we going to be able to make these opportunities available for 
your workers? That's the challenge we face. Technology is changing; can 
the workforce change with it? And that's the challenge.
    High-tech companies created twice as many jobs as those in any other 
industries. By the way, it required a productive worker to work in those 
jobs. A productive worker also made two times the amount of money they 
were making before. In other words, when you're more productive, you're 
going to make more. Are we going to be able to use our education systems 
to be able to match a person's desire to work with the skills necessary 
to become employable? That's the challenge we face.
    We're not training enough people to fill the jobs of the 21st 
century. There is a skills gap. And if we don't adjust quickly and if we 
don't do smart things with the taxpayers' money, if we don't properly 
use our community colleges, for example, we're going to have a shortage 
of skilled workers in the decades to come. And if you've got a shortage 
of skilled workers in the decades to come, guess what's going to happen 
to America--we're no longer going to be on the leading edge of change. 
It's going to be hard for our children and grandchildren to find the 
kind of jobs that will be being generated in the world's economy.
    And so that's what I want to talk to you about today. It requires, 
first of all, people's willingness to adapt. We've got to get it right 
early, by the way, in order to make sure we've got a workforce that's 
capable of filling the 21st century jobs. That's why I'm such a big 
believer in what we call the No Child Left Behind Act. It was an act 
that said, we'll spend more Federal money, particularly on

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Title I students. Those are the poorest of students. But for the first 
time, we're going to ask whether or not the school systems are teaching 
children to read and write and add and subtract. It's really the basis 
of No Child Left Behind. It says, ``Gosh, if you're going to get Federal 
money, it seems reasonable to ask the question whether or not there's 
results.''
    And the reason you ask that--I ask that question, at least, is 
because I believe every child can learn. I refuse to condemn inner-city 
black kids to failed school systems. I refuse to--[applause]. I don't 
like it when I hear stories of first-generation American families--the 
children of first-generation American families being just shuffled 
through because English isn't the primary language of their family. 
That's not right. I believe every child can learn. And so what we have 
said is, ``In return for Federal money, we expect you, the State, to 
show us, to measure.''
    And by the way, there's money available for early childhood 
intervention programs. Like in third grade, if a child can't pass a 
simple reading comprehensive exam, that child needs help early, before 
it's too late. The best way to make sure we're competitive, by the way, 
one of the best ways to make sure we're competitive in the 21st century, 
is to get it right at the public school system. And the No Child Left 
Behind Act challenges the soft bigotry of low expectations.
    As we focus on high schools, which I'll talk about tomorrow, and the 
Pell grant system for higher education, we've always got to remember 
that there are a lot of folks who are long past school age who need help 
and are interested. Government can't make somebody say, ``I'm going to 
go get retrained.'' That's--impossible to do that. We can help people 
who want to be retrained.
    I met Sharon Segee today. She is with us. She is--four years ago, 
she was a medical lab assistant at the local hospital. She got to the 
point where, as she put it, she was deadlocked. In other words, she 
wasn't satisfied with what was happening in her life. She put it this 
way; she said ``I was making about as much as I was going to make, and I 
was doing all I was going to do.'' That's the definition of 
``deadlocked.'' She enrolled in a nursing program here at Central 
Piedmont. She enrolled in the program. In other words, she said, ``I'm 
going to do something about it. I'm tired of being deadlocked. I want to 
raise my standards. I want to raise my sights.''
    She went here with the help of the local hospital. I want to thank 
the local hospital for providing funds to help somebody who is desirous 
of gaining new skills to do so. She's now making more salary. She loves 
her career. She's thinking about getting a bachelor's degree. In other 
words, Sharon has made the decision that she wants to take advantage of 
what Piedmont has to offer so that she becomes a more productive worker. 
Remember, if you're more productive, you're going to make more money.
    Sharon, I don't know where you are, but I want to--there you are. 
Thank you very much for coming. I appreciate it.
    See, it's important for people listening here to realize that 
there's--that what Sharon has done is available for you as well; that if 
you want to improve yourself, there's a great opportunity to do so 
throughout the State of North Carolina. I know. I went to Forsythe 
Community College in Forsythe County--[applause]--there you go. It's 
good to see you all again. [Laughter] This is a part of the world that 
had been hit by the changing economy. Yet because the health care 
industry was so vibrant in that part of your State, there was a 
collaborative effort between the hospital and the community college, and 
now people that were once in the textile industry are now in the health 
care industry, making more money, I want you to know.
    I met a woman named Stacey Leedom in Mesa Community College in 
Arizona. In other words, I've been going to community colleges all over 
the country. They're exciting places to visit, by the way, because 
there's so much innovation going on at the community college level. I 
met Stacey. She was a graphic artist for 15 years. And she decided to 
take technology classes at the Mesa Community College. She got a little 
help. There's Federal money, by the way, available; there's scholarship 
help. And now, after having gone to the technology course at the 
community college, she made more in her first year in her new job than 
she made in her 15th year

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as a graphic design artist. When you become a more productive citizen, 
you're going to make more money for your family.
    A more productive society is one that is more competitive. A 
productive society is one that allows us to stay on the leading edge of 
change. And a productive society is one that lifts the living standards 
of all Americans. And a good way to get more productive is to make sure 
worker training programs are vibrant and viable and available. That's 
what we're talking about.
    The main worker training program is called the Workforce Investment 
Act. That's the primary--[applause]. Yes, there you go. [Laughter] The 
program spends about $4 billion a year in grants on States--to States. 
Money from those grants go to about 3,500 State and local one-stop 
centers around the country. Perhaps some of you who have been looking 
for work or help have gone to a one-stop center. They're smart things to 
do. See, those one-stop centers have been providing employment services, 
advice, job search assistance, resume writing. There's--people walk in 
and say, ``Look, I need some help.'' They're kind of a decentralized 
approach to providing help for people, and that's very smart.
    They also give workers individual training accounts, or what I call 
innovation training accounts, they can use to get job training. In other 
words, you take the money in your innovation training account, and you 
can go to a community college, just like Piedmont right here, or at a 
business or at a union hall or at other locales.
    But last year, only about 206,000 workers obtained job training 
through this program. In other words, we've got a great Federal program 
where we spend $4 billion--and admittedly, some of it goes to other 
services, but only 200,000 workers got trained. It says to me, we've got 
to do a better job of training more people with the money we spend. 
We've got to make the system work better.
    One of my jobs as the President is to analyze programs and, if 
they're not doing the job they're supposed to do, is to redesign them so 
they do do the job they're supposed to do, so that we properly spend 
taxpayers' money. So today I want to talk about a plan to reform the job 
training programs, to the WIA programs, to the Workforce Investment Act. 
And I believe we can double the number of workers who are going through 
the job training programs.
    And let me tell you how we're going to do it. First, the Federal job 
training programs need to be--the money needs to be sent directly to the 
Governors. We don't want to Federalize the program, quite the opposite. 
We want the Governors--and let the Governors distribute the money to 
programs which actually are training people for jobs which exist.
    Now, that sounds simple, but that's not the way it's working today, 
because the Federal Government, as a result of the laws passed by 
Congress, micromanaged the system. There's a series of programs, all of 
which have their own specifications--in other words, they tell the 
Governors and the States where to spend the money, what to spend the 
money on, the kind of system the Governors ought to set up--and as a 
result of micromanagement, miss opportunities for jobs which exist in 
the communities in which people are looking for work.
    In other words, we need to make the system more flexible, more 
available to workers, and less dependent on foreign--on Federal rules, 
in order to make sure that the money gets to the people who need it 
most. So, step one is to change the system on how--the relationship 
between the Federal Government and the State government.
    Two, we need to make sure that the States reduce the overhead costs 
connected with these job training programs. There's now a 15-percent cap 
on how much Federal job training money that States can spend on 
administrative overhead. That's positive. It seems to make sense. If 
you're going to spend money, a certain amount ought to go to setting the 
program up, and the rest of it goes to the people. But unfortunately, 
there's loopholes in the program. Too much Federal money is spent on 
things that have little to do with job training, such as management 
studies or travel. We want the money going to the people. That's what we 
want. It's okay to spend money to set the system up; we want as much 
money going to the people. We need to close the loophole. One of the 
reforms is to say, ``The 15-percent cap is a

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stringent cap. We mean what we say when we say we're going to limit the 
amount of money that can go to overhead.'' We believe that by making 
sure the cap is a strong cap on overhead money, we will save about $300 
million, which means an extra $100,000--100,000 workers a year get 
trained.
    Third, we need to require clear results of Federal tax dollars that 
go to training workers. In other words, if we're going to spend $4 
billion a year, we want to make sure we get results for the money. It's 
amazing what happens when you start to ask for results. The problem is, 
there are now 17 different goals involved in the training programs. If 
you've got 17 goals, there really are no goals, right? I mean, if you've 
got so many goals, it's really hard to measure. And so what we need to 
do is to make sure that people are judged--people who are spending your 
money are judged on what we care about. Job centers will report how many 
people they help find work. That makes sense as one of the goals. In 
other words, we've got money coming your way; tell us how many people 
have actually found a job, how much they earn on their jobs, and how 
long they stay on those jobs. That's what ought to be measured, and 
nothing else. And we ought to say, ``Look, this is what the programs 
exist for, and these are the three goals we'll measure you on.'' And if 
the State doesn't make progress, then it only makes sense to take some 
of the money that is being sent to the States and send it directly to 
the job trainers, so that we actually do meet what we expect to have 
happen, and that is people being trained for the jobs which exist.
    And finally, look, I recognize--there is a balance between the State 
role--the States have got a vital role to play--and between places like 
Piedmont. Piedmont does a fabulous job, and so do a lot of other 
community colleges, because their curriculum is flexible. They're just 
not stuck. They don't--you know, like some places get stuck, and they 
don't change. The community college system has the capability of change. 
One reason they change is because they listen to the job providers.
    One of the things, if you talk to a leader in the community college, 
a good community college, they'll say, ``I call in a group of business 
leaders who are looking for workers and say, `What skills do you need? 
If you're interested in hiring people, what can we do to help you? What 
kind of people are you looking for?' '' And then they change the 
curriculum accordingly. I met with a small-business owner earlier. I 
think he said 75 people had gone through the Piedmont--through the 
campus. And he helped pay for the programs for worker training.

    In other words, the community college system is a flexible program. 
It's adaptable to meet the needs of the local communities. And so the 
fourth proposal is to provide Federal job training money directly to 
community colleges. And that was part of the Jobs for the 21st Century 
Initiative I outlined. It's $250 million additional to go to community 
colleges directly, to help create partnerships with job providers and 
the community college systems around the country. We believe this will 
help train up to an additional 100,000 people a year.

    In other words, these are four reforms that will help meet the needs 
of this country as we go into the 21st century. This economy is 
changing. First of all, it's growing, and as it grows, it changes. And 
so what we need to do is adapt our systems and the programs we've got in 
place to help meet the needs of our people. It's a legitimate role of 
the Federal Government, is to help people who want to help themselves.

    We've got people from all walks of life who say, ``Gosh, I'm stuck. 
I see the new jobs being created, but I don't have the skills necessary. 
This is an innovative world we live in, but I'm not--I don't have the 
skills necessary to be an innovative worker. And I want to improve 
myself. Where do I go? Where can I find help?'' Well, taxpayers' money 
is helping people do that. We just want to make sure the taxpayers' 
money we're spending is actually working to the maximum extent possible.

    I think we have an obligation to help people help themselves. I love 
the stories of people who are willing to go back to the community 
college because they feel frustrated. They realize their job--they could 
be doing

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better. There's nothing better than an innovative person seizing the 
moment. And a vibrant society is one that makes the community college 
system accessible to those who have made the determination to improve 
their lot and improve their lives.
    When people decide to become a better worker, they're helping our 
economy. As more workers become retrained for the jobs of the 21st 
century, it will help us stay on the leading edge of technological 
change in the world. As our workforce gets retrained--listen, we've got 
great workers; they just need the skills necessary to be able to 
compete. And as this labor force becomes more educated and more skilled 
for the jobs of the 21st century, we'll stay the leading country in the 
world. And that's what we want. We want to be the leader in the world, 
because when you're in the leader of the world, the standard of living 
for your people rises. We want the American Dream to shine brightly.
    Listen, we've been through a lot in this country. We've been through 
an amazing period of time, and we're strong and getting stronger. You 
know why? Because the American people are great. The American people are 
strong, determined, resolved. They are willing to rise to any challenge. 
And it is my honor to lead a country full of such wonderful people.
    May God bless you all. May God bless our country.

Note: The President spoke at 10:15 a.m. at Central Piedmont Community 
College-Central Campus. In his remarks, he referred to Charlotte-
Mecklenburg Police Chief Darrel Stephens; and P. Anthony Zeiss, 
president, Central Piedmont Community College, and his wife, Beth. The 
Office of the Press Secretary also released a Spanish language 
transcript of these remarks.